The Scoop on the Newseum

Museum guards must eavesdrop on the most interesting snippets of public conversations throughout the day, the kind of stuff you expect to read the next morning in "Overheard in DC". Much of it is likely gossip or assumptions visitors make about the content of museum exhibitions. The Washington Post ran an article a few years ago which suggested that parents often feel pressured to make up answers to questions their children ask if they are stumped. At the Newseum, however, facts are central to the news presentations and programs. So it was with great satisfaction that I overheard teens visiting the museum on a school field trip discussing what they were reading, amazed that truth could be more interesting than fiction.

To be honest, going to the Newseum, billed as Washington DC's most interactive museum, was a bit of an indulgence for me. Admission for adults is expensive at $19.95 (free for kids 6 and under), and I wasn't certain that there would be much to interest my toddler son. But I was encouraged to visit the museum at its new home on Pennsylvania Avenue after reading reviews from enthusiastic parents of satisfied kids on Yelp DC. They were right; it was worth it! I saved myself a little money by ordering advance tickets online for a 10% discount. The tickets were valid for two days, so we passed them on to some friends who were interested in going the second day. Group discounts are also available and school groups can attend for free. A word to the wise, though, some of the material on display is "intense" and may be inappropriate for children or some visitors. Look for signs that provide advance warning for parents and guardians.

The Newseum is within walking distance of Metro stations serving all train lines. Outside of the museum entrance is a display of the day's headlines published on front pages of newspapers from all over the U.S. and the world. On the day we visited, a small town paper in Missouri announced a new performance at a repertory theater while the Washington Post ran a lead story about health-care reform legislation. It was fascinating to see these differences, and I was impressed that the museum updates its displays daily to keep up with the 21st century demand for 24/7 global news feeds.

It's hard to miss the news helicopter and high definition media screen suspended in the atrium as you first approach the ticket counter. It speaks to the airy spaciousness of this beautifully designed building. The exhibits are extensive and varied, spreading across seven floors. We picked up a few informative visitors guides at the counter (which are also refreshingly up-to-date in their description of the exhibitions, including the temporary special exhibits) and took the elevator down to the Concourse level. The food court, aptly name the Food Section, was the perfect place to grab a quick bite to eat. We brought our lunch to save a few dollars, but there is a kids menu available. After taking a closer look at the guides, we decided to take a self-guided tour following suggestions from the "Newseum's Top Ten" and "Two-Hour Highlights Tour" brochures. The "Visitors Guide" contains clear maps that will help you navigate the museum quickly to make efficient use of your time.

We continued to look around the Concourse after lunch. Here we found the largest exhibit of graffiti-covered sections of the Berlin Wall outside of Germany, a Conus 1 news satellite truck (similar to those we've witnessed broadcasting live reports around Washington, DC), and a sports photography display which all captivated my son. One temporary exhibit featured life-size photo cut-outs of notorious crime figures that visitors can pose with for pictures. The school kids visiting the museum seemed to enjoy this opportunity to take pix of their friends since photography is prohibited in some exhibits to protect the artifacts. These include personal effects of journalists (from customized cameras used to capture prize-winning images to battered laptops and other reporting tools), curious objects such as the Unabomber's cabin and a door that "played a starring role in the Watergate scandal", and the in-tact, relocated NBC bureau office of Meet the Press moderator and family-man, Tim Russert. Other galleries showcase original copies of newspapers highlighting important events in U.S. and world history and influential books on freedom from the last 500 years. A Learning Center and Educator-Gallery Tours provide educational offerings for school groups and professional development for adults. We stopped to listen to a bit of one tour and learned that additional resources for students and teachers may be accessed online.

Professional photographers have said that the best pictures make a viewer laugh, cry, or simply feel something. Photojournalists have the distinct privilege and power to make thousands of other people care about their subjects. It was with this in mind that I toured the Pulitzer Prize Winning Photographs on the first floor. Most of the images were captured by career journalists with a few notable exceptions, those taken by passersby who happened to have a camera at the right place and time. Highschool students looking at these photos asked thought-provoking questions, like, "Why didn't he just put down his camera and help those people?". The Journalists Memorial is also sobering to experience and begs the question why journalists put themselves in harms way to cover wars and work in countries that deny free speech and other human rights. Interactive kiosks and games of judgment in the Ethics Center help museum-goers consider the difficult decisions journalists must often make.

The Interactive Newsroom on the second floor provides lighter diversions. Big kids can try reading the news in front of a live camera, and youngsters are challenged to separate fact from rumor as virtual reporters solving a "Who Dunnit?"-type touchscreen computer game. My son enjoyed helping investigate how wild animals escaped from a circus downtown by watching and progressing an animated sequence by touching the computer screen. To observe how real TV studios operate, visit the Knight Studio on Pennsylvania Avenue. ABC’s news show "This Week" is taped every Sunday morning in the studio. More learning and entertainment opportunities come by way of fifteen (!) theaters showing original films about the Newseum, documentary photography, sports history, the First Amendment, and breaking news. The Annenberg Theater even provides a 4-D film experience, "I-Witness!", a 3-D movie (you wear the funny glasses) with motion effects, air gusts, and more. Museum talks and special movie screenings also take place at the Annenberg Theater. See the Calendar of Events for more information.

We appreciated that the Newseum has plenty to interest folks of all ages. The temporary exhibit, "First Dogs: Presidential Pets in the White House" was perfect for toddlers as the photo enlargements were placed low, at their eye level. We voted on our favorite pet by placing a penny in a tube near the display. Other points of interest, especially for families with younger children, are the Comics exhibit on the Concourse level, the Internet, TV and Radio Gallery on Level 3, and the Terrace on the 6th floor. The small comics exhibit only takes a short time to see, and kids will love the colorful Sunday comics on display. There are familiar characters like Calvin and Hobbes as well as the first published comic strips. The Terrace on Pennsylvania Avenue offers a stunning rooftop view of downtown Washington, DC looking East to the U.S. Capitol Building and West to the Washington Monument. An exhibit spanning the terrace rail documents, in words and pictures, the events that shaped historic Pennsylvania Avenue, from Presidential processions to political demonstrations. A 25-foot high multimedia timeline in the Internet, TV, and Radio Gallery reflects the evolution of technology, from radio to the Internet to the Kindle, as it has impacted the delivery of news. Early newspaper editors were considered celebrities and had their likenesses reproduced on trading cards, but the 21st century has witnessed the general public using "the power of the mass media" via social networking media like Twitter and weblogs.

If a trip to the museum doesn't fit into your budget, the Newseum website still has something to offer. A news trivia game and virtual museum tour are available on the Fun and Games page. Online galleries featured on the Exhibits and Theaters page showcase the work of news photographers. By the time we left the Newseum that day, though, I better understood why the admission tickets allow entry for two consecutive days. We appreciated every minute of our visit, and there was still so much left to experience. While I had blown my activity budget for the week, I felt better knowing it went to support a worthwhile cause.

Wizards in the Kitchen

My mother turned us on to cooking by introducing my older sister and me to Betty Crocker in the 1970's. My sister first received the Betty Crocker Easy Bake Oven that baked cookie and cake batter prepared from packaged mixes with heat generated from an electric light bulb inside the small toy oven. When we had used up the Easy Bake mixes, we improvised our own from scratch. We also prepared whimsical salads inspired by the technicolor photos illustrating our Betty Crocker's New Boys and Girls Cookbook. A family favorite was the bunny salad, canned pear halves trussed up with cinnamon candy noses, cottage cheese tails, and almond slivers for ears. The appeal of these recipes was less their flavor and more the challenge of making ingredients (pears) look like other things (rabbits). Like many American girls and boys growing up in the 1970's, we fell in love with cooking by being encouraged to play with our food. Of course, we were also learning our way around a kitchen at a time when mothers were beginning to work outside the home in record numbers. This meant "real" meals slow-cooked from scratch were quickly replaced with processed, packaged foods reheated in microwaves not unlike the Easy Bake Oven.

Like the Betty Crocker cookbook of my childhood, Ruth Yaron's Super Baby Food features plenty of suggestions for making mealtimes special for kids. Recipes include Toddler Hors d'Oeuvres, Flying Saucers (sandwiches on round bread) and Teddy Bear Pancakes. But Yaron's book, which has become my baby food bible, provides tips for preparing fun and healthful meals for children and common sense advice for stretching your grocery budget. Yaron insists that her own kids, raised on the organic produce and vegetarian diet she promotes, have "super" immune systems and rarely get sick. That means they spend fewer days recuperating and have more time for play! Sections of her book are entitled "Feeding Your Super Baby", "Toddler (and Grown-up) Recipes", "Food Decorating", and "Let's Have a Party!". There are also chapters on environmentally safe cleaners, home-made baby products, starting a windowsill garden, and Arts and Crafts... everything new Moms and Dads need to know about making those first years with baby contended ones and more. Other kid's cookbooks available at our local library include those for children with special dietary needs (vegetarian, wheat-free, low calorie, etc.) and, for the more adventurous, international cuisine.

Teach Mama, a mother of three young children and an educator, writes an inspirational blog dedicated to sharing ideas for "learning through meaningful time and play". In her post "More Counting and Cooking with Cora", TM describes her toddler daughter's enthusiasm for helping in the kitchen and her own desire to capitalize on this impelling instructional opportunity. She enlists her daughter in counting pieces of potato as TM cuts them for dinner or sorting colorful vegetables (carrots, broccoli, grape tomatoes) by hue, sneaking learning into an every day activity. On "New for Us Friday", her older children participate in exciting new educational activities during the afternoons following half-days at school. One afternoon, they made Zip-loc Bag Ice-Cream at home, an enriching experiment in culinary science. The added benefit was getting to eat the ice cream that the children made themselves!

Ruth Reichl, former editor-in-chief of "Gourmet" magazine, has a sophisticated relationship with food and writes about its correlation to her family life. She most recently wrote a memoir entitled Not Becoming My Mother: and Other Things She Taught Me Along the Way. In the book, Reichl describes her mother, born in 1908, as an educated woman who sacrificed her career ambitions, even in the new era of women's emancipation, to fulfill her obligations as housewife. She also suffered from depression and taste "blindness". According to Reichl, her mother once served bad meat covered in chocolate, forgoing consumability for creativity. A career woman and mother, Reichl left her post as New York Times restaurant critic to be home earlier in the evenings to make dinner with her family. She encouraged her teenage son to help (he chopped while she cooked) and found this eased him into talking about his day at a time when teens often distance themselves from their parents. Reichl declares this was the best time in her life, a period when the members of her family "entered each other's lives in a really profound way." But to make it happen, she had to plan ahead. Every Sunday, she spent a few hours choosing easy-to-fix recipes, preparing a menu for the week in advance, and shopping for the ingredients.

"Gourmet" magazine, respected for its thought-provoking articles regarding the politics of food, recently folded, but the website still features content from the print publication, plenty of recipes, reviews of restaurants and cookbooks, and instructional videos. My favorite series are "Extreme Frugality", a food writer's experiment in zero spending, and "The Kid's Menu" which offers fresh perspectives for parents who cook.

Now that we must be careful in our spending, I have adjusted my shopping habits. For the first time in my life, I religiously use coupons and club cards for discounts and two-for-one deals at grocery stores. A vegetarian since the age of fifteen, I habitually read the list of food ingredients before buying; now I am also in the habit of comparing prices and purchasing items on sale. Many store brands, even of natural and organic products, cost less than name brands. Local, seasonal produce is often cheaper (and fresher) at both retail stores and farmers markets. I buy in bulk when it's practical, and bring my own reusable shopping bags to save a nickel for every bag. Warehouse stores (Shopper's Food Warehouse and Costco) and superstores (Wal-mart and Target Greatland) are meccas for thrifty shoppers, but the inconvenience of driving to their suburban locations prevents me from going. Instead, I walk a few blocks to shop for the best deals at retail grocers like Harris Teeter (with grocery carts fashioned like cars for the tots riding in them) or Safeway and pick up a few store brand or hard-to-find specialty items at Yes! Organic Market or Whole Foods Market. It's a good idea to check the stores' websites first for specials and on-line coupons.

Typically on weekends during Spring, Summer and Fall months, farmers markets located throughout the Washington area offer fresh produce, baked goods, cheeses and preserves at good prices. AS enjoys the adventure of these outdoor venues as there are sometimes free food samples, local musicians performing and good people-watching opportunities. A friend and his wife arranged regular home deliveries of seasonal produce from a farm discovered through our neighborhood farmers market in Adams Morgan. They save money buying organic this way but never know which fruit or vegetables or how much of each they will receive. Every monthly delivery presents a fun challenge in finding creative ways to cook new foods, from winter root vegetables to Chinese cabbage.

Whole Foods Market in Georgetown holds an indoor farmers' market every Tuesday from 4-7pm with products available from local farmers and artisans. WFM is perhaps best known for selling high quality natural and organic goods, including "Whole Baby Products" like baby formula, pureed baby food and chlorine-free diapers, but DC stores also offer free cooking classes and other programs, such as "Mommy and Me" and the "Mom's Tour". Check the website of your neighborhood store for the events calendar to learn more. On-line coupons are available on their website, as are money-saving meal plans and recipes and nutrition tips for kids and teens. The DC Chapter of the Holistic Moms Network has also invited whole food chefs and nutrition educators to speak to parents about cooking holistic meals for their families at their monthly meetings in the Cleveland Park Library.

If your youngster or teen insists on learning to cook from a "real" chef, rather than Mom or Dad, consider the Washington Post Cooking Class Listings for children's cooking classes and camps. They receive mostly good reviews from parents, but tuition can be high. The DC Department of Parks and Recreation occasionally offers FREE cooking classes, usually for teens, at community centers, but I have not heard parents recommend these. Please let me know if you have heard anything! An easy alternative is to enlist a relative or friend who is known for their culinary expertise to volunteer their time to teach your little Top Chef a thing or two. Read FoodNetwork.com's ten "safe and easy ways for the family to cook together" before getting started. My mother is happy to break out her apron and mixer to bake special treats with the grandkids on holidays, like gingerbread houses for Christmas and Rice Crispy Treat "Eggs" at Easter. Aunt K and Uncle J are the family gourmets and are pleased to test new dishes on us, their enthusiastic patrons, whenever we visit.

When I was pregnant, acquaintances with children would see my extended belly and comment "Your life is never going to be the same!". Since the prospect of suddenly morphing into a different person was a frightening one, I chose to skirt these conversations. Now that I am a Mom, I understand that some of my interests, like motorcycling, need to be put on the back burner (at least until AS is old enough to ride in a side car), but cooking is not one of them. A recipe for red sauce with sweet caramelized onions remains tucked into my art school sketchbook. It has been there, rather than in my recipe box, for 20 years to serve as a reminder. Copies of the recipe were distributed to students in a kind, impromptu gesture by a photography professor known for discovering beauty in the seemingly ordinary events of day-to-day life. Years later, in an e-mail conversation, he and I talked about the care with which he customarily set his dinner table and how I had found myself, in a moment of contended observation, enamored with the color and shape of a bunch of grapes placed as the centerpiece on mine. My former professor has since become a dear friend and mentor and continues to share his knowledge of both art and food with me. In his life as in mine, they are entwined. Every meal is a simple aesthetic experience.

Food is magic, it has the power to charm and influence people. And creative cooks are like alchemists with the power to change a common substance into one of great value. Food nourishes our bodies and minds, appeals to our senses and need for creativity, and brings people together. If parents aspire to be wizards in the kitchen, children will become enchanted by cooking, too.

Mother as Muse

Hermann Hesse's Narcissus and Goldmund, a profound epic describing the dichotomous nature of the life of an artist, is one of the few novels I have read several times in my life (most get one chance, then I'm on to another must-read). In my first post, "Living the Impossible Life", I introduced myself with a favorite quote from the character Goldmund. A sculptor, Goldmund uses the term "bliss" to convey the state of mind he seeks both as a student of religion, an artist engaged in the creative process, and as a man traveling the world in search of his muse. He looks to God and to the image of his mother, his own creators, for inspiration and ultimately accepts that his artistic development, life experience and happiness are integral. He cannot fully realize one without also nurturing and making sacrifices for the other.

Minimalist sculptor Anne Truitt's (d. 2004) Daybook: The Journey of an Artist is another book I have been compelled to reexamine. My appreciation of her whole life, the public life of a successful artist and the private life of a Washingtonian, changed significantly after my son was born. I now understand the weightiness of her seemingly simple decision that dirty dishes remain unwashed in the kitchen sink during childrens' nap times; she seized the opportunity to work in her home art studio at the expense of tidy appearances. But more stirring was her disclosure that her early pieces, sculptures of the "marked, used" female form, "failed" in her estimation. Having been misdiagnosed as sterile and told she would never have children, Truitt was haunted by this physical "deprivation" and feared that her work would lack the "vital force" of assimilated experience. Reflecting back on life during her 50's, she asserted that her career was the only enterprise she made successful entirely by herself, but her three children were her "greatest blessings".

Family and home have long been pervasive themes in my artwork, whether it be capturing images of relatives and close friends or scenes from the neighborhood. But I returned to Hesse's and Truitt's writings for a little perspective after a month during which I infrequently raised a camera to my eye. Instead of documenting AS's every new accomplishment in pictures, I exhausted my reserves in hot pursuit of a toddler boy who very much wants to wander and explore, often into harm's way (not so unlike Hesse's Goldmund). The artist in me, for whom creating is vital to well-being, needed gentle reminding that my son and I are collaborating in the most creative endeavor, his development.

Gretchen Ruben, an urban Mom and author of The Happiness Project, deduces that mementos help prompt positive memories and that "recalling happy times helps boost happiness in the present". So, instead of fretting about the serious art that is not getting made since I left the teaching profession to be a SAHM, I try to remember all that I have accomplished during my first momentous year as Artful Mom. I pull out an album of our mementos, snapshot photos I have diligently taken and archived, and place it on the floor. AS sits in my lap and helps turn the pages. He identifies the faces of his parents and grandparents and flashes smiles of recognition at his own image. We love looking at the photographs together, and this motivates me to pick up my camera again. While I take pictures of AS, he experiments with an old 2.0 megapixel compact point-and-shoot. Digital cameras designed for kids are available in toy and camera stores, but this hand-me-down seems to do the trick. AS already knows, from seeing his parents model the behavior, how to hold it and push the shutter release button. He immediately looks at his LED screen for playback of the digital image and shows it to me. A third book comes comes to mind, Show and Tell, containing photos of city life by artist Thomas Roma with written commentary by his son Giancarlo who was eight years old at the time. Giancarlo selected the pictures to be used for the book and thereby turned the process of creating it "into a dialog between father and son".

That afternoon, we look at newsworthy pix from an on-line gallery at WashingtonPost.com. It proves to be a great opportunity to introduce AS to new vocabulary and help him see the most basic elements of an image, such as colors and shapes, which I point out or trace with my finger. This is similar to our experience of looking at photographs together at the Newseum or in the West Building at the National Gallery of Art. As I carried AS on my hip from room to room to view the prints on display, I talked to him in clear language about important details, including features of people's faces and clothing. AS enjoyed seeing the images from my eye level (as opposed to the lower vantage point of the stroller), and I was able to keep his interest by talking animatedly and gesturing to parts of the pictures. While we were at the NGA, I overheard a wonderful mother of three older children, probably between ages 5 and 9. She asked her kids a variety of short questions about the pictures, praised their responses, and modeled good learning practices by reading information provided by the museum to answer her childrens' questions when she didn't already know the answer. A book I later discovered in the juvenile section of our library, Tell Me a Picture by Quentin Blake, provides examples of questions parents can ask their children about art.

Documentary photography, maybe more than any other type of photographic imagery, seems to have immediate appeal for young people. Perhaps this is because kids can better relate to images made directly from their world. In the 1980's, Jim Hubbard, an acclaimed professional photographer, began documenting lives of the homeless in Washington, DC, and found children he photographed especially eager to look through his camera's viewfinder. Many of these children were from low income families that suddenly fell upon hard times, such as the death of a parent or a parent's loss of a job, and were at risk of being lured into gangs and illegal activities. Hubbard was motivated to establish, "Shooting Back", a program to help children in shelters develop skills to increase their self esteem and to learn about legitimate career possibilities. I often shared a documentary film about "Shooting Back" with my own students to raise their social awareness and prompt them to act.

In 2002, I had the pleasure of attending a workshop for DC educators at the Corcoran Gallery of Art by photographer, teacher and author, Wendy Ewald. Ewald has helped build darkrooms and bring the power of photography to disadvantaged children and their communities all over the world. She discovered that children, "insiders" in their communities, often take more emotionally compelling photographs of their families and neighborhoods than do professionals who are "outsiders". Ewald applied for grants to purchase Polaroid instant cameras and film for the children, empowering them to find their own voices and to become ambassadors for their communities.

The success of Hubbard's and Ewald's efforts with children motivated me to begin a mentorship program at the high school where I taught. Teenagers in the advanced photography courses were challenged to apply their knowledge of photography and writing to teach elementary school students, for whom English was often their family's second language. We used the childrens' own images of home life, captured with simple Kodak one-time-use film cameras, to inspire their creative writing and help improve their literacy. One of my high school seniors adapted this program for the Best Buddies chapter at our school, creating friendship and learning opportunities for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. She is now teaching photography to inner city kids in Baltimore using inexpensive, plastic Holga cameras while she completes her degree in special education at Gaucher College.

These personal experiences, however, did not completely prepare me for how to introduce the magic of photography to my very young son. Nor did a quick tour of photography websites for kids on the web (Google: "teaching kids photography"). So I looked to my original role models, my sensitive, right-brained parents. Art-making became intrinsic to my life in early childhood due to their efforts and understanding of it's value. Mom encouraged my natural interests by keeping art materials and books on hand, enrolling me in classes and, most importantly, earnestly participating in art and craft projects with me. My father and paternal grandfather were avid amateur photographers who also shared their equipment, knowledge and enthusiasm with me. I first fell in love with drawing for its immediacy as I urgently recorded the real world and shared the stuff of my imagination. As a teen, I inherited a small, portable single lens reflex camera and created lasting images of beloved people, places and things, reconnecting with them through the process. Smitten, I went on to earn a BFA in Photography before earning my teaching certification in Art K-12.

As an artist, I found encouragement in knowing that I could not fail to make important images if I was photographing my family. As a teacher, I led by example and shared my work with students as they shared theirs with me. In this way, we learned more about one another and about Art. My mantra, photograph what you are passionate about. If an image ultimately lacks artistic relevance, it will still have personal value. This is the thing I want most to share with my son about art-making, the special and limitless rewards of following your bliss.

Raising Art-smart Cyberkids

There is a computer in the children's section at our neighborhood library that is loaded with educational software. Now that my son can walk, he makes a bee-line for it as soon as we arrive. Here we are surrounded by hundreds of beautifully written and illustrated books, but he wants to play with a computer. If it is not already in use he climbs up into the desk chair, makes a grab for the mouse or starts tapping away at the keys. Often, though, another child is playing one of the spelling, math, drawing or music games, and AS contentedly watches. When this first happened, my heart sank a little. Then I reminded myself that 19th century critics were initially skeptical about the applications of the newly invented camera (a "soul-less" black box) until master artists and scientists showed them photography's full potential as a medium for creative expression and learning not unlike a paint brush or a book.

Now I sit down beside AS at the library's computer and use digital painting tools to draw animals with basic shapes that he can identify and label by name, "Cat!", or with a sound, "Meow!". When he eventually loses interest in looking at the PC monitor, we go in search of similar subjects in some of my favorite children's books, such as Geoff Waring's Oscar and the Bird, by illustrators who use Photoshop computer software. I hope a seed of understanding will eventually begin to germinate and help AS form connections between the process of drawing animals with a computer mouse and the images he sees in published books like Waring's illustrations of Oscar the cat.

Our tech-savvy librarian has also hipped me to the fact that some children's book authors and illustrators have launched their own kid-friendly interactive websites. Mo Willems' site features games, art activities and video animations with his famous book characters, including Pigeon, Knuffle Bunny and Elephant & Piggie.

Last week, I received a phone call from my 8 year-old niece asking for help with a multi-player on-line computer game, Poptropica. Poptropica is a safe, virtual world designed by the Family Education Network (a network of educational resources for teachers, parents, and students on the internet) where kids engage in narrative quests that are both entertaining and informative. My niece had entered into a virtual art gallery and needed to match reproductions of paintings with the name of the style in which they were rendered, such as a Pablo Picasso piece with the style "Cubism". She was able to describe the images to me in enough detail that I could envision the paintings and help her successfully complete the task. She was enjoying learning about art, and I was glad to have an opportunity to play along with her.

These experiences recalled a discussion I heard pertaining to the pros and cons of children playing on-line games. Some parents and teachers express concerns that young people who sit in front of the computer for hours every day are more sedentary and have less social interaction than those who are encouraged to play sports or engage in other activities with friends. On the plus side, computer games can motivate reluctant learners by presenting educational content in an entertaining framework and provide a participatory alternative to passive television viewing.

I wondered if there were websites with free on-line gaming options that could teach us more about the city in which we live as my son and I explore them together. I discovered that the Smithsonian Institute, for one, has a Smithsonian Education site to familiarize kids, families and educators with the museum collections, special exhibitions, and upcoming events designed with young people in mind. You may explore different topics that are of interest to your student, "Everything Art", "Science and Nature", "History and Culture" or "People and Places", through interactive games and activities. Or, navigate directly to the Smithsonian Kids page for more on-line fun, such as matching games, trivia quizzes, crossword puzzles, art-making, and home or school project ideas.

The youngest computer users may especially appreciate the National Gallery of Art's interactive website NGAkids "Art Zone". Since a child must develop mark-making ("bang-dots" and scribbles, the most rudimentary visual symbols), prior to forming the controlled lines and shapes that become letters of the alphabet and subsequently the written language, demonstrating and learning how to click and drag a computer mouse to create images is a worthwhile collaborative activity for a parent and child.

The brazen young Dada artists of the first half of the 20th century embraced technology. In the Yellow Manifesto of 1928, the Dadaists proclaimed, "Machinism has revolutionized the world." It seems that nearly a century later many of us are still trying to make peace with youths' manifest fascination with machines, but playing interactive on-line games from the Smithsonian Institution and the National Gallery of Art is one way for families to have fun learning about new digital media together.

Passing Snow Days with Paper Cranes and Snowflakes

My 14-month old son has learned a new word, "Snow!" This comes as no surprise as the District looks like the shaken interior of one of those plastic snow globes from the DCA airport gift shop.

The city has been crippled by seasonal record-breaking snowstorms that buried the Washington, DC, metro area last Saturday and again mid-week just as we were beginning to see light. The federal government, public schools, and many businesses are closed and may remain that way through the weekend. Markets and drug stores are open intermittently but lines are long and the shelves picked over. Driving is treacherous, and public transportation service is limited to the main bus routes and below-ground train service. Sidewalks are unshoveled and icy in places forcing pedestrians to walk in the streets. The mail has not been delivered in days. A historic mess, yes, but we feel very fortunate to have power and water. Some of our family and friends in the suburbs have not been so fortunate.

My sister made a mad dash for groceries as soon as her street was plowed after Round #1 in anticipation of the next blizzard headed this way. Her 6-year old son asked why they were buying even MORE brownie mix, then paused in revelation and said, "Does this mean we're never going to be able to go outside again?" Collectively, Washingtonians are showing signs of "snow stress", and parents are facing the additional challenge of keeping young children stimulated and entertained while home from school. After several days, even new toys and books have lost their novelty and favorite television shows and video games have grown tiresome for kids. But if you keep paper of any kind in your house, you're still in luck- the kind of luck you grant yourself by folding paper cranes.

You may once have learned the concept of origami (from ori "fold" + kami "paper") from a school teacher; math teachers often use the exercise of folding paper to illustrate geometry. John Montroll, an American origami master with several books to his name, teaches at a local boys' school. He has gained the kids' admiration for his remarkable ability to improvise imaginative three-dimensional forms, such as a 3-headed dragon or a framed image of George Washington, out of a single uncut square or rectangle sheet of paper, as he sometimes does with a napkin from the cafeteria or a dollar bill from his pocket. If you were to tour the school, you would discover origami animals of different forms, patterns and size created by his students perched upon bookshelves and in unexpected little nooks across campus.

A childhood friend, whose mother was a 7th grade math teacher, learned paper-folding at home and eventually introduced it to her own elementary school students. Her "Introduction to Origami" intersession is one of the most popular offered. When my high school photography students mentored her 5th graders in a "Literacy through Photography" program, the youngsters expressed their appreciation by making origami cranes for us. We subsequently donated the cranes to students in the Japanese Culture Club who threaded together hundreds of them collected by the student body. The hand-made cranes were presented as a gift of encouragement to a classmate tragically injured in a swimming accident. In Japanese culture, this magnificent bird has been considered a symbol of loyalty and honor for thousands of years. Because of the strength of this symbol, Japanese tradition holds that a person who folds 1,000 paper cranes will be granted his greatest wish.

A few years ago, my same teacher friend took a trip with her Mom to their maternal homeland in Italy where she brought decorative 6" x 6" squares of paper in a small travel bag and created paper cranes as a gesture of goodwill to the people she befriended along the way. At one small outdoor cafe in Sicily, she began folding a crane for a curious school girl who approached her in hopes of practicing English with an American. Before long, several of the girl's classmates had joined in the conversation and were asking to see the origami demonstration again and again.

Origami may not be your cup of green tea, but these anecdotes suggest that young people do love the challenge of crafting new things with their hands from a familiar material like paper. In retrospect, you may fondly recall how to make paper fortune tellers, footballs, airplanes, boats or doll chains from your own childhood. If you need a quick refresher, there are a number of how-to books and websites dedicated to origami and other paper crafts for children. Look for additional resources that describe the history and cultural significance of the craft in the countries where different traditions, like origami and kirigami in Japan and papel picado in Mexico, have evolved. Also, choose age appropriate projects if your goal is for your children to play on their own. Easy origami is appropriate for children as early as four years of age, but they will still need your help getting started.

When the snow first began falling heavily five days ago, I initiated a week-long project to revisit some of my favorite paper crafts. AS is much too young to make them on his own but enjoys watching his father and I construct things, contributing where he can, and playing with them afterward. With Valentine's Day just around the corner, we first created cards with leftover construction paper and scrap paper from an old address book. I drew bluebirds on the cover of each card with crayons and, afterward, AS added his own crayon markings to help personalize them. On day two, I taped four 8 1/2" x 11" sheets of notebook paper together to fold a large paper hat for AS. We passed the afternoon trading the hat back and forth, taking turns wearing it and striking silly poses in attempts to make each other laugh. By Monday, we were in the mood to race. Our newest creations, origami jumping frogs, hopped two-by-two to cross a finish line at the end of the coffee table.

Inspiration came the next day from Snowflake Bentley, a children's book we borrowed from the library. This Caldecott Medal Book by Jacqueline Briggs Martin is about a 19th century farmer from Vermont, Wilson Bentley, who created the first close-up photographs of individual snowflakes. I read AS the story and showed him the beautiful photographic images of snowflakes reproduced in the back of the book. He then watched as his father and I folded and cut white computer paper, creating large snowflakes to hang on on his bedroom window like talismans against the next impeding storm (Round #2 of the so-called "Snowtastrophe"). The little diamond-shaped cut-outs from the snowflakes made snow-like confetti which we sprinkled over AS's head in flurries. While AS is too young to wield a pair of scissors himself, he loves to crumple paper. I gave him his own white sheet of paper so he could form a "snowball" to complement our snowflakes.

Creating paper crafts with your children is an inexpensive hobby and takes little planning. The process is fun, perhaps even therapeutic, and can help children pass time indoors in a quiet, constructive way. Projects such as paper bag puppets can be easily stored and recurrently enjoyed. Others can be pressed into scrapbooks as keepsakes once they have outlived their use. You may also use the opportunity to educate your children about recycling by reusing paper from shopping bags, magazines, and computer printers or notebooks.

This week local headlines in DC once again became national news thanks to the Blizzard of 2010. But rather than grow discouraged by another grim winter weather forecast and the prospect of additional snow days, we plan to re-purpose those newspapers and make the most of our time indoors.

The Free Aquarium and the National Aquarium

Bret: She works down at the cheap zoo.
Jemaine: The pet store?

Fans of the HBO comedy series "Flight of the Conchords" will recognize this dialogue from the Season 2 episode "Wingmen" in which clueless Bret confides to his slightly more perceptive roommate Jemaine about his new crush, a pet store employee. This struck me as especially funny since AS and I are in the habit of visiting the "free aquarium" on a regular basis. We shop at Petco primarily for our cat's food but always expect to stay a while so AS can watch freshwater fish, especially fluid little fan-tailed carp, and turtles swim in aquariums. From as early as just a few months of age, he has been fascinated by the colors and movement of aquatic animals and the sight and sound of streaming bubbles as oxygen is pumped in their tanks.

I grew up in a family of "animal people" and had pets of every persuasion from dogs to rodents to fish. Becoming a caretaker at a young age taught me responsibility and compassion for living things, and I want to foster these traits in my son as well. But I buried one too many goldfish as a young person to entertain buying one for AS. At the very least, he is too young for the "What happens when we die?" discussion, and I can't justify stealthily swapping out a dead fish for an identical live one every time something inevitably goes wrong. Fish in aquariums tend to thrive better than those in fishbowls, but setting up a large tank is not an option in our apartment building due to the possibility of water damage. So when we need our fish fix (or invertebrates, amphibians and reptiles), we enjoy the free experience at the pet store or take a trip downtown to the National Aquarium for a real scholarly water adventure.

You won't find fan-tailed carp or goldfish at the newly renovated aquarium, nor can you view the exhibits for free, but you will encounter over 250 amazing species to mesmerize the marine life enthusiasts in your family. Located in the lower level of the Department of Commerce Building at 1401 Constitution Avenue, NW, the National Aquarium in Washington, DC, is the little sister to a larger venue of the same name in Baltimore's Inner Harbor. While the DC space, and therefore the collection, is scaled down, the location is conveniently located near the Federal Triangle Metro station and general admission tickets are only $9 for adults, $4 for children (ages 3-11) and free for tots up under age 3. Baltimore tickets will put you back $29.95 for adults and $24.95 for children ages 3-11, and, of course, it's a long drive to get there.

Established as the nation's first (...another first for DC! woot!) aquarium in 1873, the National Aquarium in DC has been located in the Commerce Building since 1932. To make your trip more enjoyable, be prepared to pay by cash or check as they are unable to process credit cards. Strollers are permitted but difficult to lug down the interior stairs of the Commerce Building to the aquarium entrance. Ask the security personnel where to access to the full-service elevator instead. Also, the Aquarium is open daily 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., but last admission is at 4:30 p.m.

The Aquarium is promoted as the place to take a "refreshing" 45-minute self-guided tour and perfect for a short break from the office on a busy work day due to its proximity to offices downtown. But I was reminded by a local NBC news feature that we hadn't returned since it received an "extreme makeover" in 2008 and a new exhibit, America's Aquatic Treasures was introduced, so we made an effort to take the Metro bus there the following weekend. After passing through a metal detector and descending several flights of steps, we paid our admission fee and entered into the dim, otherworldy halls of the exhibit galleries. In fact, it is so dark that I considered the benefits of a Kinderkord toddler leash for the first time.

The National Marine Sanctuaries and National Parks gallery highlights marine animals and habitats that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) works to preserve and protect across our nation. The mission of the NOAA National Marine Sanctuary Program is to educate the American people about our marine heritage and to help "balance enjoyment and use with long-term conservation" through increased public awareness, scientific research and monitoring of these national treasures. Folks hailing from the eastern half of the country, as we do, will likely appreciate the Florida Everglades and Gray's Reef National Marine Sanctuary exhibits. The spacious Everglades exhibit features the American Alligator (once near extinction due to habitat destruction and poor water quality), Scarlet King Snakes, and a relative of scorpions called the Vinegaroon. AS stood with hands pressed up against the glass and followed turtles and 3-foot gators swimming past at his eye level. Gray’s Reef, located in the Atlantic Ocean off the shores of Sapelo Island, Georgia, is one of the largest sandstone reefs in the southeastern U.S. and is home to a rich collection of fascinating invertebrates, such as sea stars, urchins and anemones, and impressive vertebrates like the moray eel. We were also pleased to see that local environments, including the Potomac River, are featured in the American Freshwater Ecosystems gallery. The notorious Snake Head Fish, invasive to the Potomac and impacting its native species, can be seen here.

While we were visiting on a Sunday, a child's birthday party was in progress. Kids, under adult supervision, were zooming up and down the halls making stops along the way to point out something cool they had just discovered. The group of ten was eventually rounded-up and seated on the floor in the Amazon River Basin Gallery to anxiously await a Piranha feeding demonstration before returning to the special events room for cake and gift-opening. But you don't have to attend a birthday party to observe a feeding demonstration and hear live commentary from an aquarist. The piranhas are fed every Sunday, sharks are fed Monday, Wednesday and Saturday in the Patch Reefs Gallery, and alligators are fed every Friday at 2 p.m. for public viewing. Leopard Sharks, dainty yellow Longsnout Seahorses, an Electric Eel, and technicolor Poison Dart Frogs are other crowd-pleasers.

The Aqua Shop is located across from the aquarium entrance, and we couldn't leave without taking a quick peak. We browsed the assortment of shells and sharks teeth, children's science books, t-shirts and posters, but didn't see any "must haves" for AS at the gift shop's prices. We did discover some relatively affordable original art for sale. Small white canvases were painted in vibrant non-toxic water-based paints by "Picasso Turtles", Map Turtles and Red-eared Sliders supervised by trained herpetologists at the aquarium. To my somewhat discerning eye, it appeared as though the reptiles had first crawled through paint and then across the canvas, leaving colorful, abstract markings in their wake. In the end, we refrained from buying anything but instead considered requesting a gift membership or adopting an animal to directly help the National Aquarium save endangered wildlife. The Aquarium is a nonprofit organization funded through private and public support and admission revenue; public donations and volunteerism help the National Aquarium Institute in their mission to inspire people "to enjoy, respect, and protect the aquatic world".

City Mouse, Country Mouse

When my husband's employer granted him an extended break over the holidays, we enthusiastically made plans for a "staycation", a stay-at-home vacation, to renew our appreciation of the place we call home. Busloads of school children and thousands of out-of-towners make a trip here to the Nation's Capitol every year to take advantage of the unique sights and sounds the District has to offer, but Washingtonians tend to avoid these overcrowded "tourist traps". By doing so, we ultimately miss out on fun opportunities to learn about our capitol city. Many famous tourism spots in Washington, such as the National Mall, the iconic monuments and memorials, and President's Park (The White House), are managed by the National Park Service. Other less celebrated national parks, accepting Rock Creek, Meridian Hill, Anacostia and Kenilworth, are virtually extensions of our backyards. The parks feature something of interest for every family member, from history buffs and animal lovers to gardeners and Scouts. When researching the National Park Service (NPS) website for the District of Columbia, my husband and I were reminded that winter is a great time to explore many of these places because, as every savvy traveler knows, popular sightseeing destinations become less crowded as temperatures drop.

Locals, unlike harried tourists with packed itineraries, have the luxury of time when exploring their hometown and can savor each site they pay a visit. They can also easily do what only the most seasoned or brazen travelers tend to do, which is to veer off the beaten path in search of a city's better kept secrets. Rock Creek Park (RCP) is one undervalued jewel with plenty of things to do, so we decided to spend a couple days reacquainting ourselves with this woodland in the Northwest quadrant of DC.

The slow winding road to the RCP Nature Center, located at 5200 Glover Road, NW, is perfect for a Sunday drive and those seeking solace away from the hustle and flow of urban life on a week day. We passed a few cyclists, backpackers and dog walkers along the way as well as families lunching at picnic areas. The parking lot, which is typically full in the summer, has plenty of spaces available in winter. A bike rack is also available in front of the center for those who prefer getting there on the power of their own two feet.

The Nature Center is open to the public from 9 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. every Wednesday through Sunday except Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years Day and Independence Day. During winter, the the trees around the center are mostly bare making it easier to see wild birds perched on the branches. I heard and then spied a Downy Woodpecker within seconds of our arrival. As we entered the center we were greeted by a park ranger seated at the information desk who provided us with an informative NPS pamphlet on Rock Creek Park, a map of scenic hiking trails near the Nature Center, and a calendar of free programs at the Nature Center and Planetarium. Ranger led programs at RCP are typically offered two or three times a day on weekends and once a day during the week; the calendar includes descriptions of each event and age recommendations for children attending them. The park ranger also told us about the NPS Junior Ranger Program and gave us a booklet for children to complete to learn about stewardship of our country's natural resources and to earn a Junior Ranger sticker and badge.

On the ground floor of the Nature Center is an exhibit hall where you will find plants and animals both native and introduced to Rock Creek Park. Children may learn more about the center's live animals and assist rangers in feeding them during "Creature Feature", Friday afternoons at 4pm. A "Please Touch" area familiarizes children with the tracks different creatures leave behind and permits closer inspection of animal, insect and plant specimens. It is amazing to discover what wildlife flourishes in and around the creek, meadows, and forest habitats of this inner city park, including Wood Ducks, Eastern Painted Turtles, White-tailed Deer and the occasional coyote. Across from the exhibit hall is a play room where kids may stage small performances with forest animal hand puppets, complete a giant puzzle on the life cycle of a Monarch Butterfly, create crayon rubbings of leaves, and pore over beautifully illustrated children's books like Stellaluna and Wild Tracks that explain the natural world .

The RCP Planetarium, accessible from inside the Nature Center, is the only planetarium in the national park system. "Winter Night Sky: When I Wish Upon a Star" and "Young Planetarium" presentations are shortened programs, tailored for the youngest star-gazers. The Nature Center is also the starting point for several hiking trails in RCP, including the scenic "Nature Center Hike" and "Rapids Bridge Hike". Join a park ranger for these exploratory hikes if you're feeling ambitious, or simply take a short self-guided walk on the "Edge of the Woods Trail" to familiarize yourself with Rock Creek Park's Eastern Hemlock, Tulip and Sassafras trees among others. The trail is stroller and wheelchair accessible with a guide rope for the visually impaired.

Before leaving the center, take a few minutes to browse the bookstore. The store sells a variety of items appropriate for children: Junior Ranger hats, Ranger Roberta dolls, plush stuffed animals and puppets, a wonderful assortment of NPS sticker-, coloring- and activity-books as well as field guides and educational picture books for children of all ages. Our find of the day was Sierra Club Knowledge Cards, "Urban Wildlife: Fascinating Facts about Birds, Beasts and Bugs in Your Neighborhood". National Park Service Passports can also be purchased here. NPS Passports are pocket-size guides to parks throughout the United States and include maps, photos and practical information for travelers, but they also serve as keepsakes. Individual rubber stamps are available at park visitor centers for you to stamp your passport at every visit. If you don't want to purchase an NPS Passport but think your children would enjoy collecting the stamps, make your own passport from a small blank notepad.

It's just a short walk from the Nature Center to the Rock Creek Horse Center. Horseback riding lessons and summer day camps are offered to children and adults at all riding levels, but instruction doesn't come cheap. One-hour guided trail rides are a more affordable alternative but available only from April to October. Ten-minute supervised pony rides are a great introduction for children ages 2 1/2 and up (and at least 30" tall). Reservations are required, and it is recommended that you book trail rides 6-8 weeks in advance. Two thirds of the horses boarded here are privately owned, and you are welcome to visit the boarding facility as long as you agree to follow some simple guidelines for your safety and the well-being of the animals. We stopped to watch a group lesson for young girls in the riding ring before heading home.

Good friends living in Manassas, Virginia, grow organic produce and raise honey bees on acres of land within hiking distance of Manassas National Battlefield Park which is also managed by the National Park Service. They sometimes tempt us "city mice" to visit with promises of fresh air and a taste of country life. While I cherish such opportunities to explore a beautiful historic area and natural environment, when we return home from trips to cities north and west of Washington, DC, I sometimes find myself exhaling in relief as we cross the district line and enter what is, to my mind, one of the most culturally significant and attractive urban landscapes in the United States. The tree-lined streets, historic homes and buildings, and lack of billboards certainly contribute to Washington's visual aesthetic, but arguably it is the multitude of park lands that improve our quality of life here and attract wayfarers from near and far.

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Lions in Winter

There is something especially wonderful about being one of the few people strolling on a quiet city street early on a Sunday morning, or in an empty movie theater watching a weekday kiddie matinee, or at the zoo in the calm chill of January. It is the illusion of feeling as if the world just exists for you and your child.

At the Smithsonian National Zoological Park during less crowded visitation times just after the gates open or before close, especially on a winter's day, AS and I have observed the most remarkable animal behaviors. A drop in temperature seems to invigorate animals native to cooler climates, such as the Andean Spectacled Bears, and at dusk nocturnal animals begin to rouse from their daytime slumber. We have had the fortune of hearing the unmistakable whooping of acrobatic White-cheeked Gibbons and the howling of fox-like Maned Wolves and of seeing a deft Fishing Cat tap a paw into a pool of water to lure and catch its own meal. I watched breathlessly as an orangutan scaled a tower at the Great Ape House and traversed the O-line, the zoo's highwire Orangutan Transport System, directly above our vantage point on the Olmsted Trail, and AS beamed to behold six Asian Small-clawed Otters cavorting along the bank of a stream where they mostly pass their lives basking together in a charming heap.

Indoor exhibits, like the Reptile Discovery Center or the Small Mammal or Bird Houses, provide the perfect place to warm up. These exhibits and the animals that inhabit them tend to be smaller in size, so it is easier for small-fry to observe them more closely. Staff members and knowledgeable volunteers are happy to answer questions and encourage children to touch and interact with curious objects (such as plant seeds or fragments of bone, horn or fur) on display. You may also watch keepers feed the animals throughout the day. The daily schedule of activities and demonstrations on the zoo website lists animal feeding times for the minutest insects to the greatest mammals so you can plan your visit accordingly. Activity sheets, such as scavenger hunts and "Zoo-per Bingo", may be printed from the website ahead of time to help enrich your child's experience. In the Science Gallery adjacent to Amazonia, an exhibit highlighting species from the tropical rainforests of the Amazon River, children may emulate research scientists in the field and lab by viewing specimens through microscopes side-by-side with zoo staff conducting actual scientific research. Strollers are not permitted in some buildings due to space limitations, so pack light and bring your old umbrella stroller (not the fully-equipped SUV model you'll be anxious about leaving outside).

Outdoor exhibits are also built with the youngest zoo-goers in mind. The Great Cats enclosure features kid-size windows for better views of the lions and tigers. The Kids’ Farm provides opportunities to groom animals such as cows and donkeys in the Caring Corral. Small children may play in the Pizza Garden on a giant rubber pizza playground and learn about the origins of food. Watch in surreal delight as your tot crawls through an enormous olive, stacks larger-than-life mushroom slices and clambers up wedges of cheese like an ant at a picnic.

On Sundays from January to March, bring your family to National Zoo's Visitor Center Auditorium at 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. for the Wild Side Stage performance series for children. These winter performances include "entertaining and educational shows by acclaimed, award-winning musicians, dancers, storytellers, and puppeteers from around the country" followed by special visits to animal houses to meet keepers and animals. Tickets are $7 for adults and children age two and older. Wee ones under age two are admitted free!

Enjoy Halloween by safely Trick-or-Treating together at Boo at the Zoo. Or celebrate the winter holiday season at the annual ZooLights event, an occasion to amble through the zoo after dark to experience dozens of colorful flashing light displays, animal exhibits and live entertainment.
Children especially love to see baby animals at the zoo. A highlight for us this past year was getting to know, Kibibi, the Western Lowland Gorilla born at the Great Ape House on January 10, 2009. The public was even invited to vote on her name. Information regarding animal arrivals, births and hatchings is updated on the website monthly. Some new arrivals to the zoo's animal family are raised at the Conservation and Research Center in Front Royal, Virginia, but photographs by the zoo's professional photographers and webcams trained on the babies are a welcome representative until the animals are ready for their big debut at the zoo.

I was dismayed to read a recent newspaper article in which parents residing outside the beltway resolved never to return to Washington, DC for their children's entertainment after spending $100 at the zoo in one day. What was intended to be a cheap daytrip for the cost-conscious parents became increasing expensive as they found themselves paying for parking, treating their family of four to lunch then ice cream and coffee at a restaurant, and lured to the call of the gift shop.

It is possible to spend $20 or less for a family of four if you plan ahead. Admission to the animal exhibits is always free, and public transportation to the zoo is cheaper than parking there and more convenient. The Woodley Park-Zoo metro station is a short walk to the main entrance on Connecticut Avenue. Pack a bag lunch; there are plenty of shaded picnic tables or sunny, grassy areas to spread out a blanket in the warmer months. During winter, benches indoors are a convenient spot for enjoying a PB&J sandwich and slurping a juice box with your child.

Joining Friends of the National Zoo (FONZ) is an initial investment of $60 for a Household (two or more people living at the same address) Membership but worthwhile if you plan to visit the zoo often and are eager to take advantage of free parking, 10% discounts in National Zoo stores, a complementary subscription to Smithsonian Zoogoer magazine and discounted tickets for special events. These include annual member events, previews of new exhibits, summer camps, classes and workshops, and Snore and Roar overnights. Snore and Roar overnights? Yes, from June to September you and your Mini-me can camp out under the stars listening to the roars of lions and tigers nearby! FONZ members also enjoy free or discounted admission to other zoos and aquariums nationwide.

Check out the online calendar and website to see when special events are scheduled. The zoo is open every day of the year, except December 25th. Animal exhibits are open from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. November to March and from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. April to October.

You Give Me (Cabin) Fever

The stork visited our apartment building only once in the five years prior to AS's birth, and the winning family moved to a new house with their first born within months. This suddenly dawned on me during the waning third trimester of my pregnancy, and I wondered momentarily if there was some rule prohibiting children that I'd overlooked in our co-op by-laws and if we would be forced out onto the cold streets of December after one all-nighter with a crying newborn. But AS quickly became chummy with the building's longest resident who is our next door neighbor, several members of the board of directors and the superintendent, securing our family's rightful place here. We also befriended expectant parents living in a similar unit above us when we heard their first child was due the following year, encouraged that AS would have a buddy close-by and we would have yet another reason to stay in our cozy-for-three but affordable home.

AS continued to make acquaintances as he toddled beyond our front door to explore the halls and lobbies of the building at-large with his walker wagon. Following a blizzard, when record-breaking snowfall and sub-freezing temperatures prevented us from venturing outside, the indoor common areas became AS's playground. But after a day or two, something akin to cabin fever set in as we grew weary staring at the same four walls and window views of an alley.

When the snow melted making sidewalk travel with a stroller feasible, we bundled AS up in layers of clothing and sought other public venues for indoor amusement. This proved more challenging on a shoestring budget than heading out to the neighborhood park on a balmy day, but once again the Washington, DC area did not disappoint.

First, we followed our pediatrician's recommendation to check out some free 45 minute introductory Play and Learn classes for children ages 0-5 at Gymboree. Gymboree classes are guided by enthusiastic teachers who refer to children as "my friends" and who balance opportunities for structured movement and independent exploration on colorful pint-size gym equipment that is eye-candy for grown-ups and makes me wish I was two feet tall again. Wooden steps, tunnels and bridges encourage climbing, and sturdy plastic slides and teeter-totters help develop balance. Parents are encouraged to participate in group games that may include singing, hand motions, soap bubbles, wiffle balls, or even a parachute. These activities follow an age-appropriate curriculum geared towards building and exercising the cognitive, physical and social skills of children through play.

Gymboree offers other classes, including Music, Art, Sports, Family, and School Skills, as well as Birthday Party Packages. In fair warning, the Gymboree approach is a bit commercial with images of trademark Gymbo the Clown making appearances in the songs, toys and even on the playground equipment. Employees also follow up with a phone call after your initial free visit to encourage you to pay for additional classes. It was tempting to say "yes" because AS truly did enjoy himself there, but our search to find cheaper alternatives to remedy the winter blues continued.

Getting to Gymboree presents challenges to Washingtonians who eschew driving as there are no classes offered within the city, but the Bethesda, Maryland location is accessible by Metro rail or bus lines. Use the Trip Planner feature on the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) website to find the most direct route and the amount of fare. Maximum fare for an adult is $4.50 per person. Up to two children 4 years and younger may ride free with each adult paying full fare.

Word on the street is that the National Building Museum is the place to take your kids in the city to thaw out. NBM's Building Zone is a playroom for ages two to six (and their adult companions) with activities and toys intended to introduce children to the building arts. A playhouse, plastic tools and toy construction trucks, giant building blocks, and architecture picture books and puzzles are available to spark future engineers' imaginations.Soft-blocks for constructing a seven foot-tall arch with your family are available in the museum's Great Hall. The huge atrium is a great open space for crawlers and toddlers to safely explore while Mom and Dad sip coffee at tables near the museum cafe. Admission to NBM is free (or pay-what-you-can), and the museum is conveniently located across the street from the Judiciary Square station on Metro's red line or a quick two blocks from the Gallery Place/Chinatown station on the yellow or green lines.

Science buffs may want to visit the Butterfly Pavilion at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History to get their nature fix in a climate controlled environment until warmer weather returns. This is a great place to get some portraits of your young'un, so don't forget a camera!
All Smithsonian museums have free entry, but the Butterfly Pavilion is a fee-based special exhibit where you stroll among live butterflies and exotic plants from all over the world. Tuesdays are the exception; timed-entry tickets are still required to the exhibit but are available for free at the Butterfly Pavilion Box Office each Tuesday morning beginning at 10:00 am. Otherwise ticket prices are $6 for adults and $5 for children ages 2-12. Tickets are not required for children under two years old.

Oh's and ah's could be heard from AS as we wove between massive fossils in the Dinosaur Hall and experienced the eerie sights and sounds of the Mammal Hall. Visit the Insect Zoo if you can stomach a tarantula feeding demonstration. This may also be the only place in town you'll welcome seeing and even touching a Giant Hissing Cockroach.

Native Washingtonians will be especially interested in the Birds of DC exhibit and the Nature's Best Photography Show. If you're a shutter bug like me, you'll want to see the impressive nature photographs captured by the NBP Youth and Conservation Photographers of the Year. Nature's Best Photography magazine is founded in Northern Virginia but reaches an international audience. A free spin-off publication created by and for young people ages 12 to 21, NBP Students, was launched on-line. Encourage your budding naturalist to get his or her own photographs or stories published!

Take in the Discovery Room before ending your sojourn at NMNH. In the Discovery Room, museum staff interact with visitors and present objects from the collections such as fossils, skulls, and shells. Young people hone their skills of scientific inquiry through close examination of the objects, gathering evidence, and drawing conclusions. Programs are available on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday from October to May. See the museum website for up-to-date information.

The Smithsonian National Museum of American History also has a space dedicated to hands-on interactive play in addition to regular museum exhibits where touching objects in the collection is usually forbidden. Spark!Lab helps kids learn about the history and process of invention through games, science experiments, and inventors’ notebooks. My sister jokes that this area of the museum is a potential Purell-fest with the mutual handling of objects and sharing between kids, so bring your own bottle of hand-sanitizer if you're a self-described germaphobe! If you're feeling inspired after your museum visit, the Spark!Lab website includes how-to's for conducting experiments on your own at home. Build a drum or yo-yo out of recycled materials with your child or grow a hydroponic vegetable garden!

The ongoing NMAH exhibition "National Treasures of Popular Culture" showcases artifacts that fall into the category of museum objects you can NOT touch, but we love it just the same. Dorothy’s ruby slippers from “The Wizard of Oz” and Kermit the Frog are on permanent display along side other paragons from American music, sports and entertainment culture spanning the last 100 years. All indisputably worth braving frigid weather to see!

Where do you take your cubs when you come out of hibernation? Let us know!

Library Love and KidLit Commendations

Among my first missions after marching forward determinedly into the judicious province that is Stay-at-Home-Momdom was to reacquaint myself with the District of Columbia Public Library system. No need to buy new books or CDs, rent DVDs, subscribe to magazines or pay to download audio books and music when the public library has all this and more. They even have free wi-fi! When the librarian who issued my card informed me about the checkout limit of fifty items, I laughed out loud in amazement. I thought it unlikely that I would ever borrow so much but reconsidered after learning that parents are the ones most likely to make use of that generous provision. Especially since there is no fine for overdue children's books. Imagine that!

The DC Public Library system is a little more sophisticated than it was last time I checked. A printout of books you borrow is available upon request at the checkout counter so you can gather them from the far corners of your home and return them without worrying you've missed something. The DCPL website offers the ability to renew books online, place holds on materials and request transfers to your local branch. You are even able to download MP3's of books, music and videos! I love that I receive e-mail notifications before loans are due and when "holds" are available for pickup. You may also return books to any library branch, not just the location where you originally borrowed them. How sweet it is!

Many of the branches offer special programs at no cost. For example, computer software training is available for adults, storybook times for children, and online Homework Help for teens. There are occasional sales of used library books, family-friendly performances such a visiting dance troupes, book clubs and much more.

The Mount Pleasant Neighborhood Library, the third oldest public library building still in use in Washington, hosts several story times throughout the week to encourage literacy in the very young. Lap Time on Tuesdays at 10 a.m. features librarians reading short books and leading fledgling visitors from birth to age two and their caregivers in songs, games and fingerplay. The popular Neighbor Time is offered twice, at 10 a.m. and again at 11 a.m. on Thursdays, for children up to age five. Preschool Story Time on Tuesdays at 11 a.m. is also recommended for ages two to five. Here children may participate in singing, dancing, games, crafts and, of course, storytelling! Some of these programs are sadly underutilized by the community. A friend took her son to what was ultimately a private screening of an Elmo film because no one else showed up. Kudos to the library's media specialist for going on with the show!

The children's area at Mt. P takes up an entire floor and is stocked with many new titles and much-loved classics from board books for the wee ones to beautifully illustrated picture books well-suited to beginning bookworms to chapter books for older kids who are more voracious booklovers. Texts in the fiction section are available in several languages including English, Spanish and Vietnamese. The non-fiction collection is also impressive; I found myself perusing the Art stacks and discovering some photography books I'd love to have in my teaching collection. The board books are displayed in large wooden crates set on the floor so parents can relax and let curious toddlers plow through them without fear of disclosing an irreverence for the Dewey Decimal System. AS recently lost a shoe in there but the librarian found it in no time. Made me wonder if that happens fairly often.

Reading rooms have soft recliners for kids and are illuminated with natural light filtering in through large windows. The walls of the nooks were painted with a stunning mural, titled "Animal Circus", in the Depression era by children's book illustrator and acclaimed Disney animation artist Aurelius Battaglia (Think "Dumbo" and "Pinnochio") and are still in arguably good condition due to a protective plexiglas covering. Battaglia was a DC native and attended the Corcoran School of Art (now the Corcoran College of Art + Design). Take some time to share this local treasure and its history with your youngster. It's one of the many things that makes this city unique.

What else makes the Mt. P library our family favorite? Here are a few things that come to mind: The librarians are helpful and kid-friendly. They always ask if we need assistance and often take a moment to talk to AS. They are also careful to create a safe environment for children; I have heard them remind adults that they must be accompanied by a juvenile to stay in the youth sections. Among the biggest attractions for kids- a computer loaded with educational games (and others for web-surfing) is available.

This historic library is undergoing an "environmentally friendly and sustainable" renovation next year, and the librarian I spoke to was hopeful it will reopen after about ten months in the Spring of 2011. In the meantime, the branch will move to a temporary location and operate on a smaller scale. If you know where the temporary location will be, please let me know!

A recent radio report suggested children should be read to beginning at birth at least twice a day by their parents to stimulate language development. Encouraging very young children to turn the more manageable pages of board books, bath books or soft cloth books helps them to understand sequence and to develop motor skills. Some of AS's favorite library picks have included the interactive board books Peek-a-Who? by Nina Laden and Dear Zoo: A Lift-the-Flap Book by Rod Campbell. In fact, AS said one of his first words "Boo!" when hearing Laden's book for the umpteenth time and learned to mimic new animal sounds ("Roar!") as we read and re-read Campbell's. Author and artist Mo Willems' (formerly of Sesame Street) humorous Pigeon series is a hit with our whole family, as are the Look books by Tana Hoban which feature photographs that children view through die-cut windows to encourage more active viewing.

While AS is captive in his high chair during meals, I read to him from the more delicate picture books whose thinner pages don't withstand the rough-handling of a one-year old. Jon J. Muth's zen influenced stories Zen Shorts and Zen Ties are among the most beautifully illustrated we have discovered at the library. His watercolors are reminiscent of Japanese Sumi-e brushwork but more contemporary and whimsical. The Three Questions is another reflective story by the same author and, to my husband's satisfaction, was inspired by Russian writer Leo Tolstoy's profound short story of the same name. Each story features a panda as a pivotal character. Of course, pandas are near and dear to the hearts of adolescent Washingtonians as they are first introduced to these impressive animals at our National Zoo.

Curious to know what school-age children are reading or looking for recommendations for your child? Download an informative report by Renaissance Learning, and skim down to page 4 for a list of titles by grade and age.

If you are budget-conscious and can resist the urge to shop, Barnes and Noble bookstores host morning story times at various locations throughout the week. Browse the B&N website under "Stores and Events" for dates, times and programs. Each week they select books based on a different theme, often appropriate to the season or special holidays throughout the year. We find it is also a comfortable indoor play place on especially hot or cold days. There are usually small benches or chairs for children to curl up on with a book. If your child is in the mood to play instead, toys are provided (our local B&N has a much loved and abused train table). The staff also seem tolerant of children playing with the merchandise (such as the menagerie of stuffed animals for sale) and using the story time stage to enact their own imaginative narratives.

Which library, story time, or book satisfies your child's need to read? Please recommend one, or more!